HERMAN KURZ
1886-1966
Herman Kurz was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1886. His childhood was spent in
the Amana Society, the Community of True Inspiration, one of the outstanding communal
living societies of this country. His father died when Herman was only 12, and as was the
custom then, he was hired out to work on a farm a few miles away in order to help his mother
support the other children in the family. At the age of 20, he left the Amana Colony and took
up barbering as a means of livelihood, moving to Chicago, where he could find steady
employment. One of his regular customers, a physician, encouraged him to become a doctor
and persuaded him to pursue an education. At the age of 26 he enrolled in a YMCA highschool course, becoming so interested in chemistry that he gave up the idea of medicine and
decided to continue training in chemistry at the University of Chicago, where he
subsequently enrolled. It was during his undergraduate days there that he turned toward
botany, his consuming and lasting interest, and received his Ph.D. in that discipline in 1922.
The very new Doctor Kurz's first position as a college professor was at the Florida
State College for Women in the fall of 1922. It so happens that it was that same fall that I
entered F.S.C.W. as a freshman. The college was small in those days (1250 students and
about 75 on the faculty), so new faculty and new students were processed more or less
together, and I soon came to know the new professor and his wife. Our lifelong friendship
dates from those early days at F.S.C.W.
From his first days on this campus, Dr. Kurz was marked as one of the leaders in the
development of the college. He was physically vigorous and energetic, friendly, witty, and
liked by students and faculty alike. In the classroom he was a dynamic lecturer and teacher,
challenging the interest of many a girl who took botany merely because it sounded easier
than zoology. A number of his outstanding students have gone on to graduate degrees and
have made contributions in several plant-oriented fields in addition to teaching. Dr. Kurz
believed that the plant told its own story, and his classroom was filled with fascinating
examples of various plants and plant structures. But his enthusiasm extended far beyond the
laboratory and lecture hall. He organized many a Saturday field expedition to places of
botanical interest, soliciting the aid of Dr. Bellamy and two or three other people in
supplying transportation for these trips. In those days the college had no motor pool, and
expenses of all field excursions came out of one's own purse. These wonderful days spent in
the woods or at the seashore were a mixture of learning experiences and fun, never forgotten
by the students who shared them. There was always a waiting list for the next proposed trip.
Another example of the infectious nature of his love of learning about plants is the fact that
four or five of his students spent many long hours one year learning and perfecting the
technique of hand-painting lantern slides, made from his own pictures, for instructional use.
(This was before the days of color photography.) Another similar group drew illustrations
for a booklet on the Liverworts of North and Central Florida, which he wrote in conjunction
with Thomas M. Little, then a graduate student at the University of Florida. Both these
activities were done with no thought of credit hours or monetary remuneration.
Dr. Kurz served as a member of many faculty committees, in the days when almost
every activity on this campus was operated by committees rather than by our present capable
deans. He was chairman of the Curriculum Committee for several years, and was the first
chairman of the Graduate Committee, which served before the development of a separate
graduate school to plan and administer a growing graduate program. His leadership in these
two areas was distinguished and far-reaching.
Long before the Department of Bacteriology and Botany was separated into its two
component parts, Dr. Alban Stewart, the head of that joint department, gave Dr. Kurz free
rein in administration and budget over matters pertaining to botany. Dr. Kurz served as head
of the joint department from 1940 to 1947 and later of the Botany Department from 1947 to
1951, when he relinquished these duties in favor of research and graduate teaching. He
retired as Professor Emeritus in 1956.
Community and state activities drew attention from this busy man. He gave untold
numbers of talks to Women's Garden Clubs, and aided them in many ways in building their
valuable program of beautification. There is no record of the number of times he answered
calls from frantic parents for identification of mushrooms eaten by children and suspected of
being poisonous, or of plants found in the woods, but the number is probably astronomical.
This service he took for granted as part of his job. In later years, as the movement for
Science Fairs developed, he aided many youngsters throughout the state in the selection and
development of projects, and made many suggestions to the teachers guiding these activities.
Dr. Kurz was an active member of the local Kiwanis Club for several years, serving as its
president in 1934, and as secretary of the Florida District Kiwanis International in 1938. One
of the organizers of the Florida Academy of Sciences in 1935, he was its first president
(1936), and the recipient of its coveted Achievement Medal in 1944. He also served a term
as a director of the Association of Southeastern Biologists, and was a member of various
other professional organizations such as the AAAS, the Botanical Society of America, and
the Ecological Society of America. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, a member of Sigma Xi, and was one of the faculty members
forming the F.S.C.W. chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.
Dr. Kurz's list of publications includes 31 titles, including two long monographs and a
book on Trees of Northern Florida, the latter coauthored with Dr. R. K. Godfrey. His work
on cypress, Torreya, wild flowers, liverworts, dune and scrub vegetation, and the vegetation
of the coastal tidal marshes, as well as extensive studies of the effect of low temperature as a
growth factor affecting certain plants brought him fame and recognition as a leader in
southern botany.
Much of his early research and writing was done in the days when many of the
faculty considered it almost a sin to use any time during the hours from 8:00 to 5:00 for
anything except teaching and administrative duties. This meant that his field studies and
writing were relegated to weekends, evenings, and holidays, but nothing could stop him from
pursuit of his all-consuming interest in plants. His enthusiasm was contagious, and caused
those of us privileged to work with him to emulate his dedication to research. In a day when
outside grants supporting research are taken for granted, it is interesting to note that he was
probably the first member of this faculty to receive such support, a handsome grant from the
Office of Naval Research.
At the time of his retirement in 1956 more than forty letters were received from
former students attesting to the influence of this man way beyond the classroom and beyond
college years. Perhaps the most fitting tribute to his love of the out-of-doors and his
influence on his students is the poem one of his former students wrote about him.
APPRECIATION
My life's an open jewel box
Of shells and seas . . .
A floral pattern picturesque
With trees, and trees.
I never look at dark-branched pines
So weirdly tall
Against a blue or silver sky
But I recall
My treasure trove. And giant oaks
Their strength outlined
In stalwart, moss-draped silhouette
Bring back to mind
A dedicated teacher and
His sacred trust
To love earth's beauty and to share it
With the rest of us.
Dr. Kurz died December 12, 1965. His survivors from his immediate family are his
two daughters, Flora, now Mrs. Ray Ayala of Chamblee, Georgia, and Rose, Mrs. Rose
Kilgalen, of Baltimore, Maryland, and six grandchildren.
Respectfully submitted,
Ruth Schornherst Breen